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10B
REGIONAL
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1997
Holiday Caravan Parade
The Holiday Caravan Parade will take,
to the streets of Salisbury Nov. 26.
Rowan Events, page IIB.
USD A seeks a compromise with black farmers
By Curt Anderson
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
: WASHINGTON - Looking for
tompromise, the Agriculture
Department is asking attor-
teys for black fanners to delay
their federal discrimination
lawsuit and search for an alter
native way of resolving their
complaints.
• But farmers appeared to be
cool to the idea.
New
activism
at UNC
Black students
present list of
demands
JWE ASSOCIATED PRESS
; CHAPEL HILL - Black stu
dent leaders at UNC-Chapel
Hill pledging a new era of
activism marched to the uni
versity's administration build
ing and presented a list of
demands to Chancellor Michael
Hooker.
More than 100 people partic
ipated in Friday's march and
rallv that ended UNC Black
Student Movement awareness
day.
“I have been here for years to
pee this,” said Daryl Hunt, a
senior and movement leader,
"... the Black Student
Movement move and do some
thing.”
The awareness day com
memorated the organization's
founding 30 years ago as well
as educate the surrounding
community, leaders said.
Black Student Movement
President India Williams
waved the list of 22 demands
before the cheering crowd at
the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Hooker did not attend the
event - he had a prior obliga
tion, said Williams, who asked
that Hooker send a written
response to her in a timely
manner.
“We demand to be taken seri
ously and with the utmost con
cern,” she said.
Some of the demands draw
ing the most response from the
crowd included active recruit
ment of minority professors
and black admissions officers
becoming the primary readers
of black students’ applications.
They also want Hooker to
issue a statement in support of
a free-standing Sorga Haynes
Stone Black Cultural Center.
In an unrelated announce
ment Thursday, Hooker said
the center had received a
$100,000 gift from 360
Communications. Alumni and
other sponsors have pledged
$3.5 million of the $7.5 million
needed to build a free-standing
center.
The USDA’s proposal last
week for a 30-day stay in the
case would allow the two sides
time to negotiate a method of
addressing the complaints
without a federal judge order
ing them to go immediately
into court-supervised media
tion.
Alexander Pires, attorney for
14 black farmers whose suit
seeks to represent the class of
all complaining farmers, said
the offer was “hazy and
bureaucratic” and stopped
short of a firm agreement to
mediation.
“They want to come up with
some alternative dispute mech
anism. 'Why not just mediate?”
he said.
The offer from USDA to Pires
came just before today's dead
line for the agency to meet U.S.
District Judge Paul Friedman’s
order to turn over documents
related to the farmers' com
plaints that they were discrimi
nated against as they tried to
get farm loans and other bene
fits.
All told, USDA has a backlog
of around 950 discrimination
complaints against it, but not
all stem from denial of farm
program benefits as charged in
the lawsuit. Many were simply
shelved years ago and never
investigated.
To investigate complaints, the
agency reconstituted a civil
rights unit disbanded by the
Reagan administration in 1983.
USDA has set a new goal to
resolve the bias cases by July
1998. It has resisted court-
ordered mediation, however,
contending it is committed to
Heart and soul of food, education
PHOTO/BARBER-SCOTIA COLLEGE
John Mullins, president of the LionsGroup, Inc., center, presented Barber-Scotia College President Sammie Potts, right, with a $1,500
check for a The Heart and Soul of Good Food Educational Assistance Scholarship last month. Barber Scotia hosted Pure Wesson’s
Citywide Chicken FryFest for Charlotte area churches. The LionsGroup is marketing the Hunt-Wesson campaign, which includes the
$20,000 Pure Wesson “Chefs of Tomorrow” Sweepstakes this month at Food Lion stores. Patricia Chambers of Jesus Christ Holiness
Church won a $1,500 cash prize in the FryFest Her church also won $1,500.
Push on for Fayetteville memorial
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
FAYETTEVILLE - Family
members slain during a racial
ly-motivated attack by Fort
Bragg soldiers want
Fayetteville city leaders to
erect a memorial at the site of
the slayings.
The families of Jackie
Burden and Michael James
sent letters to city officials last
month asking for a permanent
reminder of the 1995 slayings
that prompted national atten
tion about racism in the mili
tary.
The Fayetteville city council
sent the request to the city
human relations commission,
which will discuss the idea
Thursday.
Ira Freeman, Burden’s father,
said relatives have not decided
what the memorial should look
like or who should pay for it.
But he said the monument
would help the city remember
the crime and the racism
behind it.
James, 36, and Burden, 27,
were shot while walking on a
city street on Dec. 7, 1995. Two
white 82nd Airborne soldiers,
James Burmeister and
Malcolm Wright, were convict
ed of first-degree murder for
the deaths of Burden and
James, who were black. A third
soldier accepted a plea agree
ment on conspiracy and acces
sory counts.
Freeman would like to see
some marker up next month for
the second anniversary of the
murders.
Blazing Stars in concert
By Malcolm Plummer
FOR THE CHARLOTTE POST
National recording artists
Ronica and the Mighty Blazing
Stars will headline a free
gospel concert in Salisbury on
Friday.
The Cornelius group’s current
CD, titled “You Can’t Tell It”
has received air play from New
York to California, as well as
served as a product of concern
for young people everywhere.
“I feel a tremendous need for
the direction of our children,”
said group leader Robert Bower
in phone interview from Rabo
Records, the Stars’ label.
“They’ve been fed so much neg
ativity that we need to raise
their minds to a realm of posi
tivity. Hopefully, our music can
connect with the young kids
and let them know that they
can feel good about doing posi
tive things.”
Talk to Bower about his 11-
year-old grandson Tony, who
plays drums and sings “It’s
See MIGHTY on page 11B
Ronica and the Mighty Blazing Stars will perform Friday.
dealing with the discrimination
complaints through its admin
istrative process.
Sam Taylor, a spokesman for
the black farmers who brought
the federal lawsuit, said
USDA's offer is a “positive
step.” But he said the farmers
still plan to ask the judge to
certify the case as representing
all farmers and want the court
to order mediation.
Civil War
site tells
history
By Sonja Barisic
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
CHARLES CITY, Va. -
Confederate Maj. Gen.
Fitzhugh Lee probably expect
ed an easy victory when he was
ordered to capture a fort gar
risoned by black Union sol
diers.
Instead, Lee’s battle-hard
ened cavalrymen were beaten
back in just a few hours on May
24, 1864, by the much smaller
Union force and had to retreat
back to Richmond.
A chagrined Lee, the nephew
of Gen. Robert E. Lee, lied
about the extent of the
Confederate casualties, and
over the years the significance
of the battle was lost.
Now, the grandson of
President John lyier is work
ing to make sure the valor of
those U.S. Colored Troops at
Fort Pocahontas is recognized.
Harrison Tyler, 69, last year
bought the half-mile long, rec
tangular fort near Sherwood
Forest, President lyier’s estate
along the James River. The
lyier family still lives in the
mansion west of Williamsburg.
Tyier set about clearing more
than 130 years of overgrown
brush and asked archaeologists
at the College of William and
Mary to study the site.
“Even though I grew up only a
few miles from here ... I did not
know the history of the fort
itself,” Tyier said last week dur
ing a ceremony to unveil a his
torical marker about the battle.
Tyler said he decided to huy
the land from a private devel
oper after he got a call from
Edwin W. Besch, a historian
from Mobile, Ala.
Besch, a former Virginia resi
dent and retired Marine cap
tain, had researched docu
ments pertaining to the fort
and found out black Union
troops fought an important bat
tle there.
“This is possibly the largest
single victory won by nearly all
black soldiers,” Besch said. In
most other battles involving
black troops, they fought along
side white troops, and black
troops had been criticized at
the time as not being capable of
fighting on their own, he said.
In the battle, about 1,100
blacks, supported by a few
white soldiers manning two
cannons, repulsed 2,500
Confederate cavalrymen to
maintain the Union’s control of
James River navigation.
Rowan Events
6 p.m. - Jvyitsu, Paul Laurence Dunbar
Center, 820 S. Long SL, E. Spencer. Instructor:
Sen Sei Craig Harrison, Second Degree Black
Belt Jinshin-Do Ju Jitau. Eight years to
Adults. Tuition: $15 per month. FtH- informa
tion call 647-0054.
6 p.m. - Cultural Film Festivtd, Dunbar
Family Resource Center, 820 S. Long St., E.
Spencer. Elach Thursday. 6 to 8 p.m. Hosted by
James Abernathy, Jr. For information call 647-
0054.
6 p.m. - Junior Ibastmasters, Miller
Recreation Center, 1402 W. Bank Street,
Salisbury. This program is designed to improve
public speaking and writing skills for boys and
girls grades 6-8.
6 pm. - Girls Club and Boys Club, Miller
Recreation Center, 1402 W. Bank St.,
Salisbury. Fun and games for ages 9-14.
Discussions on various topics. Every Thursday,
6-8 p.m. Registration ongoing. For informa
tion call 638-5297/5298.
8 p.m. - Second Annual Men's Appreciation
Day, Livingstone College, Varick Auditorium,
701 W. Monroe St, Salisbury. Sponsored by
Zeta Phi Beta Sorority.
Nov. 21
11 a.m. International Student Cuisine Day -
Livingstone College, Aggrey Student Center,
701 W. Monroe St, Salisbury.
7 p.m. - Bible Study - Jerusalem Baptist
Church, N. Long St, Spencer.
7 p.m. - Parents Night Out, City Park
Center, 316 Lake Drive, Salisbury. For boys
and girls ages 6-12, iun, games, pizza.
Register early. Cost; $5, resident; $10, non
resident. For information call 638-5295.
7:30 p.m. - Play: Ramona Quimby, Meroney
Theater, 213 S. Main St., Salisbury. A
Piedmont Players Theatre Youth theater pro
duction by children, for children. For ticket
information caU 633 5471.
7:30 p.m. - Bible Study, Ibwer of Power
United Holy Church, 601 E. Cemetery St,
Salisbury.
7:30 p.m. - Pre-Appreciation Day Concert,
Mt. Zion Baptist Church, Borden Quarters,
White Rd., Salisbury. Honoring Rev. and Mrs.
D. S. Houston. Featuring Rabo Records record
ing artists Ronica & the Mighty Blazing Stars,
with the 11-year-old sensation Tbny Bowers.
Also appearing, the Gethsemane Gospel
Singers of Davidson, The Zionettes of Union
Chapel, and the Young Adults of the Mt Zion
Baptist Church. Admission free. For informa
tion call Alice Perry, 637-1822.
Nov. 22
9 - 10 a.m. - Intercessory Prayer Line,
Jerusalem Baptist Church, N. Long St.,
Spencer. Call in prayer requests. From 9 a.m.
to 10 a.m. each Saturday morning - 6373447.
10 a.m. - 1997 Fall Festival Harvest Feast,
downtown Spencer. Saturday, 10 a.m. to sun
set; Sunday, 1 p.m. to sunset For vendor infor
mation call: Ann King (Running Fawn) 647-
9916.
3 p.m. - Pre-Thanksgiving Service, Third
Creek AME Zion Church, 415 E. Main St,
Cleveland. Pastor; Rev. Dormie Kent. Guest
speaker: Rev. Wthrow Stockton, Jr. of Varick
AME Zion Church, Kensbridge, Va.
3 p.m. - Special Harvest Celebration for the
Pastor, Church of God of Prophecy, 730 N.
Long St., E. Spencer. Pastor: Bishop James
Lott Guest speaker Rev. John Jones with con
gregation of First United Baptist Church,
Kannapolis.
4 p.m. - 100 Women in White Celebration,
First Calvary Baptist Church, 400 S. Long St.,
Salisbury. Theme: A Tribute to Our Legacy.
Past and present presidents of the General
Missionary will be honored. First Calvary
Gospel Choir will be in concert. All women are
asked to wear white and join in the candle
bearing procession.
4 p.m. - Fruits of the Spirit, Jerusalem-
Baptist Church, N. Long St., Spencer. .
See ROWAN on page 11B i